NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on whether to frame charges against RJD president Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav and others in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).Special judge Vishal Gogne reserved the order for July 23 after the arguments were concluded on the aspect of charge, while directing the accused persons to file a short synopsis of their arguments within one week.”Limited submissions have been addressed by the counsel for the CBI in terms of the previous order. The arguments thus stand concluded on the aspect of charge. The accused persons who have not furnished written submissions are at liberty to file a short synopsis of their arguments comprising no more than six to eight pages within one week,” judge Gogne said.The judge said that since extensive arguments were advanced by the respective counsels for the 14 accused with reference to the voluminous record and the proceedings were stretched over several months even with day-to-day hearing in bulk dates, “the court shall require suitable time for pronouncing the order on charge.”Prasad, Devi and Yadav earlier refuted corruption and other charges levelled against them by the CBI in the case. The charges include criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption that carry a maximum jail term of seven years. The three claimed before the court through their lawyer that the CBI lacked evidence to prosecute them in the case.Prasad, who was railway minister during the UPA-I government, had earlier questioned the validity of sanctions obtained by the CBI to prosecute him in the case.The agency told the court on February 28 that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused persons in the case.The case stems from alleged irregularities in the grant of operational contracts of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.According to the CBI chargesheet, a conspiracy was hatched between 2004 and 2014 in pursuance of which BNR hotels of the Indian Railways, located in Puri and Ranchi, were first transferred to the IRCTC.Later, they were leased to the Patna-based Sujata Hotels Private Limited for operations and maintenance.The tender process, the agency alleged, was rigged and manipulated and the conditions were tweaked to help the private party — Sujata Hotels.The chargesheet also names the then group general managers of IRCTC, VK Asthana and RK Goyal, and Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar, both directors of Sujata Hotels and owners of Chanakya Hotel.Delight Marketing Company, now known as Lara Projects, and Sujata Hotels have also been named as accused in the chargesheet.
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